From stage to airwaves: Lifeline adapts 'Miss Holmes' to audio format

Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Paul S. Holmquist compared the process of re-imagining his company's production of "Miss Holmes" as an audio play to working with clay.

"You can nudge it here and there," said Holmquist, who directed the original 2016 stage production and its 2021 all-audio counterpart, "but part of the process is knowing when to step back."

That was the case with Lifeline's digital adaptation of ensemble member Christopher M. Walsh's play, which recasts Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes and friend Dr. Watson as women. Besides a bit of script tweaking for clarity, transferring "Miss Holmes" from the stage to the airwaves in response to the COVID-19 pandemic required the expertise of sound designer/engineer Keith Conrad.

"Half of our (rehearsal) sessions were about adjusting our mics so we weren't blowing out the speaker," laughed Glendale Heights native Chris Hainsworth, who reprises his role as Miss Holmes' older brother Mycroft while his wife reprises her role as the sleuth.

The show's success also depends on the cast's ability to express their characters entirely through their voices. The opportunity intrigued ensemble member Katie McLean Hainsworth, who stars as Miss Sherlock Holmes. Performing the play as an audio drama meant slowing down and finding the nuance in her vocal patterns to express what her body couldn't, McLean Hainsworth said.

Onstage, a raised eyebrow or a shrugged shoulder can convey volumes about a character. In this case, McLean Hainsworth's challenge was to "take all the energy we poured into our physical selves and pour it into your voice."

It also meant "letting vulnerability into my voice as opposed to showing it on my face," she said.

For Chris Hainsworth, adjusting to the new medium meant breaking old habits. For instance, not having to project for 99 audience members allowed for more subtle inflections, Hainsworth said, adding that onstage or through the airwaves, an actor's job is to connect with the audience, whether they're 3 feet or 300 feet from the stage.

"Miss Holmes" centers on the female detective who in Victorian England is denied the same access and agency her male counterparts enjoy. Walsh's play broke down easily into six episodes, making it ideal for audio-drama adaptation, which Holmquist likened to an audio book, fitting for a company known for its literary adaptations.

Still, the project posed challenges. Actors recorded scenes out of sequence and often delivered multiple takes of the same line to give Holmquist and sound designer Conrad options. The sound effects were added in postproduction, according to Holmquist.

For McLean Hainsworth, that's when the production really came together.

"Listening to it was a joy," she said. "Footsteps, crowd noises, a carriage rumbling, that's the magic part for me."

She hopes Lifeline makes audio adaptations permanent, adding "to make the most of this medium you have to keep doing it."

"I hope it's here to stay," she said. "I enjoy it so much and I love how it can reach a much broader audience."

The stage production, which premiered at the beginning of the #MeToo era and before Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, continues to resonate, said Hainsworth.

"The main premise is still valid. Sherlock Holmes could do whatever he wanted because he was a white man with money," he said. "If Sherlock Holmes is a woman, she's going to be disregarded on the basis of her sex alone."

Holmquist agrees.

"Systems of power are still in place that need to be examined and questioned," he said.

"To push against a system and power that is so deeply entrenched" is a radical act, he said, as is the heroine's attempt to uncover the truth.

Audience reaction shifted after the 2016 presidential election, McLean Hainsworth said.

"We had a very different vibe," she said.

"You could feel it in the audience," said Hainsworth, adding, lines that got laughs before the election no longer seemed funny afterward.

"Society is never more than half a step away of turning on any particular group," observed Hainsworth. "It's always worth examining what our prejudices are and what we may be losing by holding onto them."

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"Miss Holmes"

When: Streaming online, with episodes airing weekly through April 30

Where: Private website accessed through Lifeline Theatre

Tickets: Pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $20 for full access through April 30. (773) 761-4477 or lifelinetheatre.com